Solar power at last gets its time in sun

Nation’s store of solar power up 95% last year; FPL now ramping up.

The U.S. solar market is booming as Florida Power & Light Co. and other utilities rush to build more sun-powered plants.

In its biggest production year to date, the U.S. solar market added 14,626 megawatts of new solar photovoltaic capacit y in 2016. That’s a 95 percent increase over 2015’s then record-breaking addition of 7,493 megawatts, the Solar Energy Industries Association says.

FPL, headquartered in Juno Beach, announced last week that it plans to add 600 megawatts at eight new solar energy centers with more than 2.5 million solar panels by 2018, enough to power roughly 120,000 homes. It already operates more than 335 megawatts of solar-generating capacity, which includes three plants that started up in December.

But solar accounts for less than

FLORIDA POWER & LIGHT CO. One of Florida Power & Light’s three solar-power generation plants is the Babcock Ranch Solar Energy Center in Charlotte County. FPL is adding 2.5 million more panels next year.